What I’m reading
- in print / on screen
I’ve just finished one July release, Christopher Beha’s second novel Arts & Entertainments, and am submitting my review to Shelf Awarenessthis weekend, after which I’ll retjoin another ARC from the same source, Yannick Murphy’s paperback original This Is the Water, in progress. I really need to do a better job of checking publication dates when I’m deciding the oder in which to read the ARCs I get from them, since it actually does matter when those reviews run.
- on audio
I’m just past halfway through The Martian and quite enjoying both the story and the narration so far.
What I’m watching
The TV was pretty quiet this week, thanks to various other activities, and the DVR recordings still aren’t stacking up. We’re almost done with Season 2 of Supernatural on Netfilx, and it’s still going to take a while to catch up with that show (currently on season 96 or something).
What I’m writing
I’m current on book reviews for the moment, so I was able to post some thoughts on the “reality” of online friendships for BlogHer’s“Selfiebration” project a few days ago. I also wrote a lengthy email to the organizers of the BEA Bloggers Conference in response to a request for feedback that they sent me, and I’ll be posting a version of that here as an “open letter” on Tuesday–I’m hoping for some good discussion on that one!
What caught my eye this week
If you’re a Feedly subscriber, it was a tough week to keep up with your blog reading–the service was taken down by hackers three days in a row. They seem to have recovered as of this weekend, but I would recommend setting up an account with another feed service as a backup in case they get hit again; I signed up with Feedbin on Friday. Like Feedly, it works with my favorite mobile feed-reader apps., Mr. Reader (iPad only)and Unread (iPhone and iPad), which was one of my top requirements.
(Speaking of mobile feed readers, I was involved in a Twiiter conversation about their effect on blog comments this past week–you can see the highlights here on Storify. Do you agree that they’ve contributed to decreased commenting activity?)
The Feedly outage led to more conversations and fewer links shared on Twitter this week, so let’s play a little catch-up:
- “Within that description, however, lies a multitude of experiences — a hall of mirrors in which my version of Twitter is nothing like your version, and nothing like that of the person sitting next to you on the train or the airplane, or at the basketball game.”—Speaking of Twitter, some observations about its ongoing, years-long identity crisis
- “But what’s wrong with reading for fun? Especially at a time when publishers are laying off staffers and bookstores are closing, why condemn others for what they choose to read? When you deem certain types of culture acceptable and unacceptable, people deeply internalize these ideas and do, in fact, feel ashamed about what they read or listen to or watch, whether it’s chick lit or YA or whatever the genre du jour to malign is.”—Rachel Kramer Bussel declares “We Will Not Be Reader-Shamed”
- “According to The Publishing Industry, it’s not enough for readers to just read books anymore. The point of it all is to take readers, convert them to fans, then push them to become evangelists for a book or author. Real readers have to become evangelicals for books because evangelism is, apparently, the only way to drive sales.”—Kim asks “Why Isn’t Just Reading Enough Anymore?”
- “I wonder how I would have felt about this book had there not been a blazing publicity campaign, and if I had not felt manipulated into reading. Would I have been more forgiving about its thin characterizations, its one-sided plot, its glib sleights of hand? Would I have received the book as I receive most books—as the best a well-meaning author could do?”—Beth Kephart questions the effects of the hype machine
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| I built this from the contents of a fortune cookie and my own photo of a sunset with the Union photo app on the iPad. Instagram liked it. |
